Duck Soup

The first Marx brothers film I've ever watched and I wish it was the last, but Night at the Opera is also on the list. I can't tell if this was supposed to be a musical or slap stick--it did a pretty poor job of being either. It was intriguing to see the original mimed mirror sequence but the rest of the film was pretty absurd and painful to watch, particularly the scenes with the lemonade vendor.

Shane

Not much to say, the acting was stilted all around. Alan Ladd just walked around looking smug while Jean Arthur made glanced pensively out the window a lot. I did enjoy the stereotyped Norwegian homesteader family. Some sweeping shots, but nowhere near as beautiful anything David Lean or The Searchers. My nightmares are filled with the sound of the son yelling Shane.

The Philadelphia Story

I generally like Katherine Hepburn, James Stewart, and Cary Grant but I found them all grating in this story. Stewart relies a bit too much on his jovial, street smart persona and his mannerisms which might have been appropriate for the stage are excessive on screen. Hepburn lacks empathy and is not relate-able (even for a rich girl); I simply don't understand how all three male leads would fall in love with her. Cary Grant just seem smug. I find it odd that instead of having Hepburn's Samantha Lord chose the rich man over the self made man or the poor(ish) writer; the rich girl choosing the rich boy doesn't show particular depth on either of their parts and my guess is a return to alcoholism and philandering on both their parts within a few months of remarriage.

Apocalypse Now: Redux

This movie had moments of greatness, but none of the tightness of exposition that The Godfather had. The rediting in of the French plantation scene in particular, which glancingly related to the themes of colonization and what constitutes a native/homeland, dragged when juxtaposed between the high action and tension scenes of Lawrence Fishbourne's death and the fight at Do Lung bridge. I'm not sure if I liked Marlon Brando's interpretation of Kurtz, but Martin Sheen was good and Robert Duvall was outstanding.

Midnight Cowboy

Mixed feelings about this one. I do in general tend to like New Hollywood films from that period such as Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown but the collage-like scenes and inter-cutting for the rave and flashbacks felt too disjointed. The Jon Voight character came across as a bit of a caricature to me; I don't know how believable the idea of an army dischargee who dresses like a dude ranch worker coming to New York to be a gigolo is. On the other hand I think Dustin Hoffman did a great job as Rizzo, the wise-cracking, smarmy con-man--in fact it's the thing that convinced me to give this three stars. The MacGuffin of Hoffman's unexplained could have been better thought out (was he supposed to have AIDS?) but the tuberculosis-like illness was better for dramatic physicality than something more believable like cancer.

Double Indemnity

Don't really have any strong feelings about this film--it's your typical film noir--but then again it might have been one of the films to define the genre (1944). Aesthetically I can't warm to Barbara Stanwyck and her character seems vapid when she should be more, well for lack a better word, Bette Davis-like. Fred MacMurray was similarly forgettable, only Ed Robinson as Keyes, the paternalistic and blustery insurance investigator. Not one of Billy Wilder's best films.

All About Eve

Waited a bit to blog about this, but overall I enjoyed it quite a bit. I think it may be the most natural role Bette Davis has ever played and I am shocked she didn't win an Oscar. On that note I was surprised at the depth of the female cast in this film with strong performances by Anne Baxter, Thelma Ritter, and Celeste Holm. The cameo by Marilyn Monroe wasn't bad either. The male acting with the exception of Gary Merrill left a bit to be desired. I did find certain portions, such as the Sarah Siddons award presentation, voice overs, and end shot of the new ingenue standing in the mirror a bit stilted but overall it was a tightly edited film.